After the frantic post-bubble action has died down, tournament play usually returns to normal. Okay, there will still be some desperate short stacks moving all-in but the majority of players will have settled down. This is an incredibly important time in your tournament. Two or three all-in confrontations can lead to a big stack and the final table or a cold elimination. There is a subtle art to playing this part of the tournament and the key factor that should drive your play is your stack size. There are two things your stack size dictates: depth of money dynamics and stack dynamics.
Depth of money dynamics
This is the relation of your stack size to the blinds. There are three stages of depth of money: deep, medium, and shallow. Shallow is when you only have one legitimate move and that is all-in. Aggression at this stage is the only way to go and you should not be picky with the hands you move all-in with when first to act. The medium stage affords you more play. You can make standard raises first to act and play postflop poker but you need to understand that just one or two hands can have you in the shallow stage or even out of the tournament. The deep stage is the ideal stage to be in as you are the player with the power. Your stack size allows you to take chances against short stacks and apply pressure against medium stacks.
Stack dynamics
This is the relation of your stack size to your opponent’s stack size. There are three unique relationships between stack sizes.
1) Your opponent can bust you without risking a large portion of their stack. To you, this is the most dangerous player at the table because they can put you to the test without fear of going broke themselves.
2) Your opponent is close or equal to you in chips. This relationship is where the biggest mistakes are most often made, as players will take on opponents they have covered without realising that losing the hand will put them in the position of being a short stack.
3) You have your opponent well covered. These are the opponents you want to be taking chances against because they cannot bust or cripple you.
Read part I
Read Part III